


A Town Called Malice

by SansasStarks



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, game of thrones
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 16:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SansasStarks/pseuds/SansasStarks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The small town of Westeros is home to several families, constantly bickering. One of these families is the Stark clan: Ned (the architect), Catelyn (the mother), Jon (the footballer), Robb (the popular), Sansa (the gossip), Arya (the walking argument), Bran (the permanently ill) and Rickon (the playful). They socialising and compete with the other families, the Baratheons, Lannisters, Tullys and Tyrells, but the parents find that their children are much better at socialising than competing.</p><p>And of course, sometimes when the music is loud and the alcohol is flowing, unexpected meetings of minds occur.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Town Called Malice

**Author's Note:**

> In this, the Starks are aged like this:
> 
> Ned - 45  
> Cat - 43  
> Jon - 18  
> Robb - 16  
> Sansa - 15  
> Arya - 13  
> Bran - 11  
> Rickon - 6
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> All other ages are mentioned, or aren't important.

The small town of Westeros in central England is home to surprising variety of people, sprawled around the town in clusters. The northern part of the town is the ‘Old Town’, and the people who live here are the descendants of the first people to live in that area. The area is surrounded by a historic forest, and the people are famed for their hard working natures, kindness and honesty. Once the town grew more into an industrial centre, richer families arrived to build factories in the town, which meant the town grey and developed its southern end, more upmarket than the Old Town. The southern end of the city, named ‘Dawn’ for reasons unknown to most, is in a curious microclimate. Dawn is home to most of the significant southern Asian population, who chose the area for it’s surprising heat compared to the rest of the town, particularly the Old Town, where a chill wind drives along the steep hill that marks the northern boundary of the town, known to visitors as Ice Hill, but in the town simply called The Wall. Just outside the town lie the Iron Villages, a cluster of settlements that is the centre of the iron mining industry in Britain. Many believe that the villages are part of the town due to the proximity, but to say that to an Iron villager is most offensive to them. The people there still work manually, mining Iron, and keep their working class nature close to their hearts.  
The town is dwarfed by the nearby city of Essos, where millions live and work. Many in Westeros regard themselves as rivals to Essos, but the Essosi don't regard the Westerosi in the same way.  
The town, now made more middle class by the arrival of a Sainsbury’s and the tourism based around the hills that surround the area and for the Dawn microclimate, has a divided nature. The people in the north stick together, bastions of the honourable, people who’ve lived and worked in the area for years. The people of the rich area in the west of the town often look down their noses at the rest of the town. The Iron Villages keep their independence and the folk from Stormhill in the east of the town have a queer pride in their area, only recently improved from slum conditions created in the war.  
Being a small town, ways to pass the time have been few and far between. The main way traditionally was the truly English escapism brought by football, either through supporting Westeros United in the south of the town or Blackcastle FC in the north of the town. The recent gentrification of the town had brought with it a social landscape. Dinner parties and normal parties are now regular occurences, there's a nice shopping area and cinemas.  
The north of the town is linked to the south by King's Road, a large avenue that stretches all the way up the town, winding it's way down through the neighbourhoods. The houses on King's Road are often large, and although they do have numbers, many are known primarily by theiir names. One of the largest houses in the north half of the King's Road is one called Winterfell. It is home to the Starks.  
The head of the household at Winterfell, Ned, has just been woken up at 7 A.M. on a Sunday. He’s not happy.  
“Rickon, why are you up so fu- bleeding early again?” asks the exasperated father, just stopping himself from cursing when shot a look by Cat, his wife, who is making a cup of tea having been woken up by the same shrieking as him.  
“I wanted to play with my toys! And Bran’s coughing so much I couldn’t sleep.” The six year old goes back to the train he was playing with, and Ned ambles into the kitchen area next to the living room that Rickon was in. Cat heard Ned’s conversation, and looks grim when Ned walks in.  
“Poor Bran,” she says, pouring some tea into two mugs, one for her and one for Ned. “It sounds like he’s getting worse. I should get him to the doctors today, make sure it’s just a cold.” Cat has always worried about her children, ever since they found out that she was pregnant with Robb. Her father Hoster had told Ned that she’d been like that with her brother Edmure when they were children. “She’s got motherly instincts, that lass.”  
There’s no use in trying to go back to sleep, so Ned decides that it would be good to spend some time with his youngest son. He helps Rickon build a huge train track, spreading all over the living room and into the kitchen. Cat complains about the track getting in her way, but she’s too delighted to see the two of them bonding to get annoyed. She spends an hour reading a book, although much of the hour is spend laughing at Rickon’s delighted shrieks.  
Eventually, the other Stark children start to descend in dribs and drabs. Arya’s first, wearing her customary nightwear of baggy t-shirt and pygama bottoms, with fluffy Star Trek slippers. Her shirt is black and bears the slogan “BLACK BROTHERS PRIDE OF WESTEROS”, which she says she’s wearing to annoy Jeyne, Robb’s girlfriend who stayed overnight, at the expense of Theon Greyjoy, Robb’s best friend who’d assumed that he would come over, as he did every Saturday night, or so it seemed.  
After Arya comes the sniffling Bran, who tries to assure his mother that he does not have the flu.  
“By friend had a cold and he gave it to be it’s not the flu, bum,” he said. Everyone laughs at his inability to pronounce the letter ‘m’ due to his cold except Cat, who assures him that a visit to the doctors is happening anyway.  
“I’ve already made the appointment!”  
“But buuuuum!”  
Next down comes Jon, the eldest son of Ned, from his first wife, who died before Ned met Cat. Jon is the star of the Blackcastle FC youth academy, tipped to become a huge football star. He took his mother’s surname, Snow, not his father’s, but he feels like part of the family to everyone. It took Cat a while to feel comfortable with him, but she did eventually.  
Sansa comes down in her frilly nightdress, which makes Arya groan, to which Sansa groans right back, seeing her sister in a t-shirt that was not only baggy, but also football related. She comes down phone in hand, texting to her best friend Jeyne Poole about some boy or other, until she sees Rickon playing with his and Ned’s train track, when plays with him too, eventually picking him up and spinning him around. Rickon screams in delight, and Sansa laughs, and everyone laughs.  
Finally Robb and his girlfriend shuffle in, to ironic cheers from everyone. Jeyne sees Arya in her Black Brothers shirt, exclaims “Why you little” and starts to chase her around the room. Robb laughs and then explains that “Jeyne is a huge Westeros United fan,” a statement met by boos by everyone in the room who cares about football. Cat and Sansa roll their eyes.  
“Breakfast time!” says Cat, who’s somehow cooked bacon and sausages and beans and eggs without anyone noticing. The whole family is delighted, sitting down around the huge family table. Sansa briefly complains that she’s on a diet, but when the food is placed in front of her she wolfs it down like everyone else. Robb and Jeyne give each other eyes the entire breakfast, while the rest pretend to not notice.  
At the end of breakfast, Jeyne thanks them and says that she needs to get home. Robb shows her to the door and comes back with a grin plastered on her face.  
“She seems nice,” says Ned, smiling.  
“Yeah…” says Robb, vaguely. “She is.” Bran says “Eww” at this point, and Robb throws a bean at him.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, there are others ready to post but I'll stagger it.


End file.
